"Go ahead. Make our day. Open up this bottle of .357 and enjoy this beer with THREE different malts, FIVE hop varieties (of course we used Magnum), and lagered SEVEN weeks. Ride off into the sunset with this in your holster!"

A- Poured a deep hazed golden yellow color. Half finger white head shows poor retention. No lace left on the sides of the glass but showed some legs.

S- Tons of alcohol all throughout the aroma. It never really dies down and goes strong right off the get go. Light earthy hops in the ending aroma get cut off by the alcohol. The rest of the beer smells like wet grain with a hint of biscuit but mostly wet grain.

T- Well hello there big burst of alcohol in the front! This beer is hot...it was hot the first time they brewed it and it's hot this time as well. Alcohol in the front dominated a grainy like pilsner malt. Wet grain toward the middle with the alcohol heat dying a little. Ending shows the grains coming out once again with a backdrop of drity hops. Alcohol comes in once again and crushes any flavor that was there. Fuck this beer is hot!

M- Medium mouthfeel. Carbonation is good for the style. Alcohol and wet grain are left on the palate and the alcohol is pretty much the only thing I can taste long into the aftertaste. Flavors were underbalanced but it would be hard to tell I think with all the alcohol flavor. No real off flavors just freaking hot beer. Heavy alcohol drying on the palate with each sip.

O- This beer was not good at all. Not a horrible beer I think if the heat were to die down. As of now though this is just a boozy mess. I've heard some good things about this in the bottle but I don't think this one should be had on tap ever...

Reviewed on 5/21/2010. Bottle thanks to FlssmrBrewAlum. Pours a clear light orange with a small white head. Aroma of sweet malt, light fruits, and a touch of glue (yes, glue). Flavor of sweet malt, a little booze, and more of that odd glue. Hmm, not really a fan of this one. The flavor was off and the palate was way too heavy. Yuck.

A- Pours a deep golden color with a two finger head of dense white foam. Head recedes leaving a thin white coaster and decent lacing.

S- Smells sweet with a hint of citrus. I'm also getting alcohol and green apple.

T- Starts out hot and sweet. Wow. More like a barleywine than a pilsner. Huge caramel malt presence mid-palate backed up with more booze and and a slightly bitter hoppiness. Finish is semi-dry and sweet with a lingering booozy aftertaste.

M- Big and sticky describes the body of this brew. Carbonation is on the low side lending a creamy texture that works well with a beer of this gravity. ABV is conspicuously evident throughout.

O- Not what I was expecting from a beer with the word "Pilsner" on the label. As I stated earlier, it seemed more like a barleywine to me. Every aspect of .357 is over the top huge. Glad I had the opportunity but I wouldn't have this one again.

In cracking this waxed bottle, I am surprised to see a spray of beer come forward like a whale's blowhole upon surfacing. No real volume of beer was lost, it was but a small mist.

This brew is dark golden with an almost brownish hue, like apple cider. The head was less than 2 fingers before it settled to a very thin cap of white bubbles-- some big and fluffy-- some small and tight. The lacing, however, is clinging to the side of my pint glass with great vengeance and furious anger.

The taste is hugely sweet. Just a slight hint of bitterness on the finish, but then it reverts to this saccharine sugar sweetness. It isn't quite cloying, but it is certainly on a train bound for that destination. Perhaps it's just too early into my glass to tell for sure. The claim is that 5 different hops were used-- but only 3 malts. I think only 3 malts were used, but in a much larger, inordinate proportion to the hops. This is all malt sweetness. Even the punch of the lagering yeast (lagered for 7 weeks!!) is lost in the sticky syrupy sweetness. The mouthfeel is pretty good, and at least for me, it is the only way to know the hops were really used. The oiliness does coat my teeth, but it leaves a lingering candied sugar flavor behind with it.

As for dinkability-- I'm not even through with my first glass and I'm getting a stomach ache. There is a big part of me that doesn't want to finish this bomber--- and that's a real shame. The malts remind me of a barleywine-- sweet caramel and a slight toffee flavor blend with the pilsener malt and possibly some Vienna malt to just stick the sweetness right in your face and hold it there.

As this warms I get some actual graininess and the mouthfeel begins to feel slightly chalky. The nose has never really come around. It started very weak, and has remained as such. I much prefer the Krampus by Southern Tier.

Overall-- this is average at best-- subpar in several categories by my count. This offering is not really typical of the brewery though, and I'll continue to drink their 1492 IPA and my wife will continue to drink their plethora of wheat beers (I think 4 different ones on tap when we were up there).

A - Golden color with a small white head, a little bit of lacing, not bad looking for the style.

S - Lot of malts here, not caramelly, but a sweet, grainy malt. A bit yeasty, surprising amount of alcohol.

T - This beer drinks way too hot for me, actually felt a burn on a pilsner, not what I wanted, even if it is imperial. Very sugary, also not working for me. Decent amount of grain, but the alcohol and sweetness kills it for me.

M - Moderately carbonated, but I think it's too thick, sticky, and slick for the style, or if nothing else, just not to my liking.

I figured I needed a beer to drink with my sandwich and the Anno Unum was only pouring outside, so I'd give this one a whirl. Plus, if it was good, I could pick up some nice looking wax-dipped bottles with great labels to take home or crack at Dark Lord Day.

Well, I didn't end up buying any bottles because this beer was really just not that good.

Brought to me in an open mouthed glass, it was gold and cloudy. Looks nice, now for a whiff...

OK, this will work! Nice skunky hops, earthy and grassy. And lots of 'em. Pilsen malt hangs out in the background but puts out its signature smell, a touch of toast, and grain. I raise the glass, we toast our journey from Ohio, our arrival at such a cool brewery and I take a sip...

Oh hells noes. What a bummer. Cleanup on isle 357, someone spilled a shit-ton of sugar. This is so unbalanced from the sweetness, it's too bad because I thought I liked where this was going. Fruity sweetness and dank hops. That's about all. Not impressed - in fact, I had a tough time giving the second half away. It was also noticibly hot, which I guess you can't avoid with a 12% pils, but wow, this was a choke-down or give up.

Mouthfeel was average, no holes to poke there. The finish is a bit dirty, though. Couldn't finish the pint I bought. Dissapointing at best - maybe Pilsners shouldn't be 12% - for an excellent example of a proper imperial pils, check the Blvd/Orval collab. Between this and Dark Lord I now have diabetes. Still had a blast there for pre DLD, though.

Bottle: Poured a clear bright golden color pilsner with a large white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma consists of sweet malt with some warming alcohol that can be easily identifiable. Taste is also dominated by loads of sweet notes with light dry hops notes not as clearly identifiable as expected. Body is quite full with somewhat of an oily texture and some good carbonation with too much alcohol that is perceptible though. This beer was too sweet for my own personal taste and with a bit too much boozy notes coming through.

amber color coming through very clearly. Nice notes of white coming over the top of the beer, with a settling down of the head into a subtle side glass profile. Nice carbonation could be seen coming up from the bottom of the glass as well.

The aroma was very light. Nice touches of citrus popping up throughout the profile. A definite touch of alcohol was visible from the very first whiff though, letting me know this one was going to be strong, and settling me back in the chair a bit I have to say. Light grains coming through now as it starts to warm up, the taste was very crisp, clean and transparen

T: Starts sweet and malty, then the booze takes over with huge astringency. Not horrible flavors here, but the booze really takes over.

M: To be fair, this one has a nice medium body with a solid amount of soft carbonation. Excellent, especially in such a big beer.

D: Pretty disappointing here. Even for a 12% beer, this one is just too boozy.

Notes: Thanks, Tony, for sharing this one. It wasn't quite the train wreck you thought it was going to be, but it definitely deserves its middling review average. They just went completely overboard making this one big, and forgot that there's more to brewing an imperial style than just upping the ABV into the stratosphere. The point of imperials is to provide more intense flavors, not just the biggest kick of alcohol. This is basically craft malt liquor.

Pours a slightly hazy straw color with a one-finger white head and some lacing.

Decent aroma - very sweet pale malt and grain along with a nice complex hop profile.

Flavor falls a bit flat. It's a bit underattenuated with very sweet pale malt dominating. There are some grassy and citrusy hop notes, but overall the balance is just not really there.

Medium-bodied and sweet on the palate with average carbonation level. The hop kick is not as big as I'd like.

Overall, wow, the high ratings on this one really surprise me. I thought it blew somewhat hard. I really don't get the hype around Flossmoor. Besides Wooden Hell, nothing I've had from this place has impressed me much.